That's chapter 1 of AP Government class here in Idaho.
Posted on 09/10/2013 6:36:29 PM PDT by ealgeone
Hey Mr. Constitutuional Scholar....THE UNITED STATES IS A CONSITUTIONAL REPUBLIC!!!
‘the typo’
Your screen name? That’s Ok. I misspelled mine too. Pure laziness.
No need to chill eagleone.
We are a Republic. Actually a representative Republic, though some say constitutional republic.
In no way is republic interchangeable with democracy.
The distinction between our Republic and a democracy is not an idle one. It has great legal significance.
The Constitution guarantees to every state a Republican form of government (Art. 4, Sec. 4). No state may join the United States unless it is a Republic. Our Republic is one dedicated to “liberty and justice for all.”
Minority individual rights are the priority. The people have natural rights instead of civil rights. The people are protected by the Bill of Rights from the majority. One vote in a jury can stop all of the majority from depriving any one of the people of his rights; this would not be so if the United States were a democracy. (see People’s rights vs Citizens’ rights)
In a pure democracy 51 beats 49[%]. In a democracy there is no such thing as a significant minority: there are no minority rights except civil rights (privileges) granted by a condescending majority. Only five of the U.S. Constitution’s first ten amendments apply to Citizens of the United States.
Simply stated, a democracy is a dictatorship of the majority. Socrates was executed by a democracy: though he harmed no one, the majority found him intolerable.
SOME DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS
Government. ....the government is but an agency of the state, distinguished as it must be in accurate thought from its scheme and machinery of government. ....In a colloquial sense, the United States or its representatives, considered as the prosecutor in a criminal action; as in the phrase, “the government objects to the witness.” [Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, p. 625]
Government; Republican government. One in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised by the people, either directly, or through representatives chosen by the people, to whome those powers are specially delegated. In re Duncan, 139 U.S. 449, 11 S.Ct. 573, 35 L.Ed. 219; Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162, 22 L.Ed. 627. [Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, p. 626]
Democracy. That form of government in which the sovereign power resides in and is exercised by the whole body of free citizens directly or indirectly through a system of representation, as distinguished from a monarchy, aristocracy, or oligarchy. Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, pp. 388-389.
http://www.1215.org/lawnotes/lawnotes/repvsdem.htm
I have from time to time been nearly unable to type at all.
The most EXTREME example of that issue was early on the morning of September 11th 2001.
A good half of what I posted must have been loaded with unintelligible keystrokes.
What typoe?
That's chapter 1 of AP Government class here in Idaho.
"I’m the president of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy."
-PJ
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
A democracy will continue to exist up until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
The word ‘democracy’ is often used as a shorthand in everyday speech, but you are correct that POTUS should not use it the way Obungo used it.
I spoke about it once to my European friends, who call their system a ‘democracy’, explaining how it pisses off pedants on this side of the pond, and why it does it, and they politely showed me that theirs was not a ‘democracy’ in the pedantic sense, but a republic just like ours.
There are no strict democracies in a world today. (Hold off Captain Obvious with your list of some obscure Pacific islands that are ‘democracies’.)
Now you can see, once and for all who is who. ANYONE and everyone who agrees with Obama’s statement is an enemy to the United States.
These progressives/communists love to use the idea of Kumbya and Democracy, but all talk of “democracy” is just a tool for their Tyranny.
We can not pretend otherwise anymore. It is mob rule, because like the MB they addict the mob to something and then turn their enemies.
It is the same MO for all of the world’s progressives. American are not immune.
Thank you, Swordmaker.
Concur. And he is not the only one. News casters, pundits, and guests say things like our democracy constantly.
I love watching people’s faces when I say the US is not a democracy but a Constitutional republic. The blank stares like I am speaking a foreign language. Like the looks I get from so many immigrants.
I can find references at least as far back as Andrew Johnson's First Annual Message in 1864 where he states "Here exists the democratic form of government; and that form of government, by the confession of European statesmen," gives a power of which no other form is capable, because it incorporates every man with the state and arouses everything that belongs to the soul."
That he understood the difference is clear because earlier in his speech he stated.."From the moment of the establishment of our free Constitution the civilized world has been convulsed by revolutions in the interests of democracy or of monarchy, but through all those revolutions the United States have wisely and firmly refused to become propagandists of republicanism. It is the only government suited to our condition; but we have never sought to impose it on others, and we have consistently followed the advice of Washington to recommend it only by the careful preservation and prudent use of the blessing. "
I grew up in Louisiana, home of America’s illiterates in two languages. I thereby claim a lifetime handicap in all matters of spelling pronunciation and grammar. It’s not that Louisiana is wrong, the rest of the nation is spelling imagination impaired.
And dictionaries do catalog common usage. Common usage is that Democracy means “representative government of democratically elected representatives.”
And I just documented in a post that it was used that way to refer to our government by a President no less, at least as far back as 1864.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
One can understand Obama's inabiilty to remember this. He has a genetic aversion to the word "Republican."
Furthermore, he has done nothing to stop the illegal crossings on the southern border, and actually weaponized our enemies on the other side.
Regarding application of the Legislature against domestic Violence, Obama has been stashing caches of weaponry across the United States, not to protect the states against Invasion, but to suppress the People when the time comes.
Think of this as a Poker "tell."
-PJ
Well met, sir. I would be honored to share more beers than we should have at one sitting, and a spirited conversation with you any time...
We’re going to have to disagree.
Obama doesn’t just “use” any word. They are all carefully scrutinized and filtered to convey a message.
Keep in mind this is a presidential address. A lot of people were watching. Everything is scripted for a reason and to solicit a response. Nothing is left to chance.
It is the dimocrat (intentional spelling) that wants to do away with the Electoral College and move an election of the president by popular, aka democracy, vote.
Yeah, he only gets worse and worse as we add up his devilish traits.
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